Jug End in Egremont, was built by Major Hugh Smiley in 1928 as Fenton Brook Farm to raise cows, the farm was converted into the Guilder Hollow Club in the mid-30s, a venue for winter sports. The resort was later sold to Robert Lexow of Texas and became Jug End, a resort popular with the singles crowd through the 60s, before falling to bankruptcy and auction in 1985. The 1,158 acre property now makes up the Jug End State Reservation & Wildlife Management Area. A 4.1 mile loop trail is easy to moderate with mountain views from fields and several small brook crossings all in the wilderness. Several short trails go through the apple orchard, planted by Johnny Appleseed himself. The large lower field was once the golf course and remnants of the wildly popular Jug End Resort can be found there.

During the 1950’s and ’60s, Jug End provided scores of jobs for local residents, and achieved its greatest fame with popular owners Angus and Mimi MacDonald. With skiing, golf, tennis, dancing, swimming, water skiing at nearby Prospect Lake, and horseback riding, herds of tourists stampeded to the popular vacation barnyard. Successive owners, however, were unable to recapture the magic of the 1960s. By the 1980s, a large condo development was planned for the site, but never materialized. The buildings fell into disrepair and the property was taken over by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and turned into a public wilderness area. (Berkshire Eagle archives).
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